Red-hot Alan Shearer has warned a delirious Toon Army that Newcastle United aren't on easy street.

While the whole of the country are suddenly taking United seriously, pointing out they supposedly have the easier run-in of all the title contenders and aren't involved in a European campaign about to reopen, the shrewd Shearer has called for a sense of realism.

All of United's next four games are humdingers - after the emotional return of Kevin Keegan with his Manchester City high-fliers to St James's Park in the FA Cup on Sunday, Newcastle face a derby with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, a home match with Arsenal and an away trip to Liverpool.

"I've looked at the fixture list and not only do we have to face a couple of our main rivals, Arsenal and Liverpool, in the space of four days, but we also have to take on teams who are fighting for their Premiership lives," said Shearer. "Those matches can be more difficult than any - they are scrapping as hard as us but for different reasons.

"The top of the table is desperately tight - we won against Southampton but ended up dropping a place in the table. It'll be topsy-turvy right until the end.

"But we're not too displeased at being third right now. It can lesson the pressure - let's see where we are after playing Arsenal and Liverpool."

However, with Shearer and Craig Bellamy in devastating form United are equipped goalscoring wise to push right to the wire.

Shearer's second successive double at St James's Park brought his goals tally for the season to 19 - six in his last four games - and he leapfrogged over both George Robledo and Pop Robson in United's all-time league scoring list. Alan now has 84 league goals for the Magpies.

"I'm delighted with that," he told me. "It's nice to be up there with the greats. I wasn't around when Robledo was playing, of course, but my dad has told me over the weekend how good he was so it means a lot."

What also means a lot is that Shearer destroyed Southampton defender Claus Lundekvam who had publicly called him a has-been a couple of years ago.

"Yeah, I was reminded of that at half-time on Saturday - not that I needed to be," smiled Shearer. "I remember these things!"